Iraqi Doctor, Once on C.I.A.'s Payroll, Fights to Stay in U.S.

Published: April 11, 2000

LOS ANGELES, April 10—
In a strange twist to a complex intelligence case, a doctor who worked for the C.I.A. in Iraq, but was detained by United States immigration officials after being spirited here for protection, has decided to fight for political asylum in America rather than being sent to a neutral third country.

The doctor, Dr. Ali Yassin Mohammed Karim, returned to court today at the Terminal Island immigration and detention facility, where he has been held for three years, to contest government assertions that he is a national security threat with ties to Iraqi, Syrian or Iranian intelligence operations.

If he loses the right to stay in the United States, he risks indefinite detention in American immigration jails, or, more remotely, deportation back to Iraq, where his lawyers say he would certainly be executed.

Dr. Ali took part in the C.I.A.'s failed campaign with the Iraqi National Congress to undermine Saddam Hussein in the years after the Persian Gulf war, but was among six held as national security threats when they were evacuated with thousands of others to the United States. The six men were ordered deported after a 40-day trial in 1997 in which the defendants were unable to contest the government's evidence because it was presented in secret.

But after R. James Woolsey, a former director of central intlligence, intervened on the Iraqis' behalf and got much of the evidence declassified, immigration officials offered the men a settlement that would place them and their families in safe countries that agreed to accept them. Five of the men agreed and were released last summer from detention facilities to live with their families in Lincoln, Neb., until their status is resolved.

But Dr. Ali was divorced from his wife after they arrived in the United States, and she and his children have been granted asylum. His lawyer, Niels W. Frenzen, said Dr. Ali fears that signing the settlement would prevent him from ever returning here to see his family.

Much of the questioning during the morning session today focused on Dr. Ali's relationship with his cousin, Aras, whom American officials maintained in documents had a connection with Iranian intelligence agents and was, in part, the basis for the government's decision to hold him as a security threat. One F.B.I. counterintelligence agent, John Peterson, acknowledged under cross-examination this morning that the relationship may have meant little.

''It may have nothing to do with him, it may have a great deal to do with him.'' Mr. Peterson subsequently acknowledged that he did not know for sure, but assumed, that the intelligence regarding Dr. Ali's cousin had been verified.

Mr. Woolsey is expected in court later this week to take partin the representation of Dr. Ali. Also, a retired senior C.I.A. case officer, Warren Marik, who was stationed in Iraq and acted as the liaison between the C.I.A. and the Iraqi National Congress resistance group, is expected to testify on Dr. Ali's behalf later in the week.

Dr. Ali's mother, Zakia Hakki, who now lives in Virginia and was present at the hearing this morning, said her son is the subject of a death warrant by the presidential palace in Iraq and that American officials made a ''grave mistake'' in suspecting him as a double agent.

''I didn't prepare for this,'' Ms. Hakki said. ''When you try to accuse him of being a threat, the highest crime, you have to give him a chance to defend himself.''